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This is a link to one of the most famous pieces of maritime film ever: Irving Johnson’s incredible amateur footage of his 1929 voyage ‘the wrong way’ around Cape Horn, from Hamburg to Chile, aboard the biggest sailing ship afloat at the time, the nitrate carrier barque Peking. No motors of any kind, everything done…
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The man from Northwards Transport was very sceptical. ‘It looks’ he said (unfortunately, to Susan, who didn’t know about the kayak at all) ‘like one of those things bairns play on in the swimming pool.’ Not the carefully designed (from surf-longboards) hydrodynamic marvel I’d been led to believe, then… Today was sunny and relatively calm,…
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This is from the new album. It’s amazingly fresh, and astringent…you’d think nobody had ever done that acoustic guitar/harmonica thing…
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The Nominated Driver A shorter version was written for Shetland Library’s ‘Bards in the Bogs’ scheme, but the site specific nature of the poem probably told against it: it can only be displayed at the Voe toilets, an important, nay crucial staging post on the long road, the A970, between Lerwick and the North Mainland,…
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Strong tea. Mug after mug today (Scottish Blend), consumed with great lip-smacking, soul-quenching relish. Extraordinary piece in The Guardian by Chris Paling, a diary of his 30-odd days in a hospital ward specialising in alcohol-related stomach and liver complaints. Disturbing, especially as I’ve been daydreaming about a moderate return to imbibing come day 31, which…
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The helicopter went into the sea around 2.00pm, and within half an hour there were Twitter and, using automatic feeds, Facebook posts about what had happened. I was on air at the time and I found out through social media, which obviously plays a part in how the programme works. It’s important for news to…
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Took these pictures (Aberdeen remains one of the most atrractive cities in the country, complete with beach, harbour and great glowering granite edifices) last night while scouring Union Street for food (prior to settling on the honey chilli chicken) followed by an extremely disturbed night thanks to the propensity of Aberdeen Young Folk for partying…
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To my favourite Chinese takeaway, just down from the awfulness that is my regular hotel in the Granite City. Secure parking and within BBC budget, though. It’s either that or the Salvation Army. I was amazed the old Suzuki GS1000G (American model, shaft drive, 80s muscle bike) started almost immediately after five months untouched in…
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Catching the boat tonight to Aberdeen. Originally, I was transporting James to the National Youth Orchestra rehearsal weekend, which has been cancelled. On the back of that, I organised the collection on Sunday of my Suzuki GS1000 from Stewart’s garage in Clydebank, and, when I was asked to m/c and play at the John Gillan…
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…thanks to those nice folk at Electric Roulette, I’ve been pointed to the truly wondrous So Many Records, So Little Time, blog, which is by someone who Knows About These Things. Edwyn Starr’s Agent Double-O-Soul is worth the price of admission alone. All the MP3s are straight from vinyl. And he’s right. Wheatus DO rock!
